Preservatives
I've been thinking about file sharing and related issues. You should know about me that I'm not averse to downloading files but that, like many others, I find I am buying more CDs by a wider variety of artists than I did before the file sharing era. In the long term, record and film companies have made plenty of dough out of me.
But I've been thinking about it, and it seems to me that, if we think of the files being shared as art-ifacts, works that are on the whole worth preserving, then what file sharers do is spread the risk of catastrophic loss.
Because if you look at the record, excuse the pun, the big corporations don't do a very good job of preserving the crown jewels. They come to put things out on DVD and find that not only can they not find original negatives, but they have to issue appeals to get hold of missing reels. Where they have kept things, they're often in a deteriorated condition.
It took an independent 3rd party (Sundazed) to think to put out a premium quality issue of Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde with the original mono mix. EMI have singularly failed to reissue early Beatles recordings in their original state (i.e. mono), and it too often turns out that original master tapes and multitracks have been lost, destroyed, mislaid, stolen etc.
When the BBC was looking to collect together its own crown jewels of television history, who did they turn to? Fans! Collectors! Also known, in this day and age, as file sharers. People who love something enough to keep it, to back it up, to preserve it.
I just bought a copy of that seminal high school comedy, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, which is a film directed by Amy Heckerling, written by Cameron Crowe, and featuring, among others, Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold, Phoebe Cates, Nicholas Cage, Anthony Edwards and Forest Whitaker. But I had to buy it second hand (a form of file sharing), and furthermore, I've never seen this film mentioned in TV listings of any station, terrestrial or satellite.
They own the crown jewels, and they do naff all with them except neglect them or destroy them. But as long as things are "out there" being passed around by the consumers, the fans, the people who ultimately foot all the bills anyway, then there's a chance they'll be preserved for the future.
Since Fast Times isn't available commercially, why shouldn't someone borrow my copy and, er, back it up? I can't think of an argument. Haven't seen the quality of the DVD transfer yet, mind you, and that's a whole other kettle of flaked fish.
But I've been thinking about it, and it seems to me that, if we think of the files being shared as art-ifacts, works that are on the whole worth preserving, then what file sharers do is spread the risk of catastrophic loss.
Because if you look at the record, excuse the pun, the big corporations don't do a very good job of preserving the crown jewels. They come to put things out on DVD and find that not only can they not find original negatives, but they have to issue appeals to get hold of missing reels. Where they have kept things, they're often in a deteriorated condition.
It took an independent 3rd party (Sundazed) to think to put out a premium quality issue of Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde with the original mono mix. EMI have singularly failed to reissue early Beatles recordings in their original state (i.e. mono), and it too often turns out that original master tapes and multitracks have been lost, destroyed, mislaid, stolen etc.
When the BBC was looking to collect together its own crown jewels of television history, who did they turn to? Fans! Collectors! Also known, in this day and age, as file sharers. People who love something enough to keep it, to back it up, to preserve it.
I just bought a copy of that seminal high school comedy, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, which is a film directed by Amy Heckerling, written by Cameron Crowe, and featuring, among others, Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold, Phoebe Cates, Nicholas Cage, Anthony Edwards and Forest Whitaker. But I had to buy it second hand (a form of file sharing), and furthermore, I've never seen this film mentioned in TV listings of any station, terrestrial or satellite.
They own the crown jewels, and they do naff all with them except neglect them or destroy them. But as long as things are "out there" being passed around by the consumers, the fans, the people who ultimately foot all the bills anyway, then there's a chance they'll be preserved for the future.
Since Fast Times isn't available commercially, why shouldn't someone borrow my copy and, er, back it up? I can't think of an argument. Haven't seen the quality of the DVD transfer yet, mind you, and that's a whole other kettle of flaked fish.
posted by Anonymous at
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
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